Hulk Hogan's
Celebrity Championship Wrestling

November 02, 2008

When I first heard about Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling I was very excited. I figured this was going to be either the worst show ever or so bad and zany that it would be the best show on television. Words can not described how crushed I was to discover that CMT in Canada was not going to be airing the program, and I would be unable to watch it.

Thank God for YouTube, because this week I managed to find and watch the first two episodes of Hulk Hogan’s CCW. If you live in Canada and want to catch the show just search YouTube for “Hulk Hogan’s CCW” each episode is in 5 parts but the segments are about 10 minutes long each and are good enough quality to watch them in full screen.

I’m still very much undecided on whether this show is great or horrible, but in either event I enjoy it enough that I intend to watch the rest of the season; I just hope the ratings hold up well enough for it to last that long.

The show has many negatives, not the least of which being the fact that the wrestling is bad…I mean ungodly bad…worse than the worst back yard wrestling match you’ve ever seen bad. The matches appear to be heavily edited and post produced yet still find a way to make you cringe with embarrassment. Theses celebrities are so horrible its mind boggling, and a few of them (Dennis Rodman, Danny Bonaduce, and Dustin Diamond) even have previous wrestling experience. If you are looking for work rate, DO NOT WATCH THIS SHOW.

That being said in a strange way the horrible wrestling saves the show. Watching these celebrities get trained and hearing them constantly talking about having to put their routines together does expose the business on a new level. By now we all know the true nature of the business but watching a bunch of D-list celebrities put together their routines, some how makes the business seem Faker. The match commentary by Bubba the Love Sponge is even worse. This isn’t a shot at Bubba, I listen to his radio show and think he’s great, but having a “smart” commentator talking about heels trying to put their baby faces over, or really selling that move, during the matches, takes wrestling expose to a whole new level. With as bad of an expose as that is, the bad wrestling some how counter balances it.

If these celebrities were managing to have good matches it would really hurt the business, because then not only would it be “fake” it would be easy. Hulk Hogan’s CCW does in a way show the world that Wrestling is extremely “fake” and at times very silly, but at least it also shows that it is extremely difficult, which is it’s saving grace. Danny Bonaduce for example has previous wrestling experience, frequently does celebrity-boxing matches, and has tons of personality and charisma, yet absolutely stinks at pro-wrestling; he can’t run ropes or take basic bump. It should give fans a new respect for the people they often refer to as horrible workers when watching WWE or TNA. Even the worst workers on these programs look like Shawn Michaels compared to the cast of HH’s CCW.

It actually reminded me of the show Circus with the Stars when I was a kid. They took a bunch of celebrities and trained them to do Circus stunts and then put them on TV. The Celebrities did great and performed the vast majority of circus feats we previously only thought possible by circus professionals. I never went to another circus after that because if a bunch of celebrities could do this stuff after a week or two of training, it was no longer a feat I thought impressive enough to pay for.

With Hulk Hogan’s CCW you get to see a bunch of crazy wacky people trying to do pro-wrestling and failing miserably at it. If you can enjoy the wackiness of it, the shows worth watching, and at the end you are left knowing that if you want to see even decent wrestling you are going to have to go and watch professionals doing it. I cant’ believe I’m doing this but I give Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling a Thumbs Up.

On a side note Missy Hyatt wrote an article about Hulk Hogan’s CCW on the F4W/Wrestling Observer site and in it suggests another show idea that would without a doubt be the greatest show in television history, “Iron Sheik’s Celebrity Rehab Wrestling”. She suggests Jake Roberts and Scott Hall as the coaches, and they teach drug-addicted stars to wrestle while going through rehab. This show would be amazing. To read her article: Click Here

Lance Storm